After the Liaodong incident, peace seemed to have returned to the whole world.

A month passed by in a flash, and soon we entered the beginning of autumn.

On the tenth day of July, the sound of firecrackers suddenly rang out on the streets of Heyang County, Baoding Prefecture, North Zhili Province. People who loved to watch the excitement immediately came over. Then amidst the sound of firecrackers, a store with a very large area pulled down its sign.

red cloth.

【Heyang Huangdian】

Seeing these four words, the people around him immediately looked disgusted and prepared to leave the place.

But soon, before they could move away, they were stopped by the waiter's shouts.

"Dear neighbors, our store is newly opened. Today we have briquettes in the store for 2 cents per pound. If you buy 100 jins, you will get a pottery stove for free. In addition, coarse salt is 5 cents per pound!"

"What? Five cents?!" Upon hearing this, the people around him immediately poured into the imperial store.

You should know that although Baoding Prefecture is also in North Zhili, the price of salt is generally six or seven cents.

Now, suddenly a rip off sells for only five cents, and the people around him immediately flock to it, just like the uncles and aunts during the supermarket sales in later generations.

Such a picture can only be said to be of the same origin.

Soon, all the briquettes, coarse salt, and fine salt in the store were sold out.

After the waiter and waiter in the store reacted, the waiter immediately said to the waiter:

"Go to the Hundred Household Office of Fusi in Nanzhen Town and ask someone to send a letter to the Royal Horse Prison, saying that the goods at the Heyang Imperial Store will be doubled next month!"

"Okay!" Hearing this, the man happily ran to the Baihu Office, and then the Baihu Office sent a fast horse to send the news to the capital of Shuntian Prefecture.

The Royal Horse Prison Yamen in the capital was very busy today. Almost every quarter of an hour, fast horses came and left in a hurry after delivering letters.

When the officials of the Caoyun Yamen, who were located diagonally opposite the Yumajian Yamen, saw this, they thought something big had happened, but they didn't know that this was the imperial shop doing business.

"Okay... okay..."

In the Yumajian Yamen, Cao Huachun, who was sitting at the head of the Yamen, was smiling and counting letters, unable to close his mouth at all.

When a eunuch next to him saw this, he smiled and said: "Admiral, this salt farm can be said to have revitalized all the imperial stores."

"Haha... It's a bit exaggerated." Cao Huachun said modestly, but his eyes were smiling, which showed that what the other party said was not wrong.

"Okay, I'll take these accounts back to the palace and show them to His Highness and Long Live. I think they will be very happy." After Cao Huachun said this, he stood up and prepared to go to the palace.

He went out and got on the carriage, then entered the palace in less than two quarters of an hour and headed to Qianqing Palace.

He did not go to Xu Qin Palace because he remembered that His Highness said that he would go to Yangxin Palace to play chess with the emperor today.

So he walked to the Qianqing Palace, and then he saw the eunuch who was accompanying Xu Qin Palace. After greeting him with a slight nod, he stepped into the Qianqing Palace and saw Wei Zhongxian guarding the door of the Yangxin Palace.

After bowing to each other, Cao Huachun walked into the Yangxin Hall and saw the two brothers Zhu Youxiao who were playing chess.

"Long live, Your Highness, the Imperial Horse Guards have received news from various imperial stores."

Cao Huachun bowed in salute and reported the reason for his disturbance.

Hearing this, Zhu Youxiao was still studying the chess game, but Zhu Youjian raised his head and said, "Bring it over."

After he finished speaking, Cao Huachun handed the letters from various imperial stores to Zhu Youjian, and then stood aside quietly.

Zhu Youjian, on the other hand, played chess and watched the situation in the imperial store without missing a beat.

If a foreign minister saw him like this, he would definitely break out in a cold sweat.

Playing chess with the emperor and showing such a dual-purpose attitude, if it were anyone else, he would have been dragged down long ago.

However, Zhu Youjian still watched the situation in the imperial store while playing chess.

More than a month has passed since the siege of Shenyang, and not much has happened in this month.

The first was to move the people of Shenyang and the people of Yangjiyuan in Beizhili to Zhenjiang and Daning. The second was that Qi Yuanbi went south, and Qin Liangyu got the order to recruit more troops.

The Liaozhen cavalry of Daning's three guards withdrew to Guangning, leaving only Mangui and Yulin guards outside the pass.

Sun Yingyuan demolished 26 stone forts in the six hundred miles from Zhenjiang to Jinzhou, and assisted Qin Bangping in dismantling the Jinzhou Guard's guard posts and troops.

The abolition of the first guard, the third post and the twenty-sixth fort reduced the number of Liao soldiers again, but it did not save much military pay.

To put it bluntly, the Liaodong generals had already transformed into a retainer system, and the abolition of the Liaonan Guard Post had nothing to do with them. The Guard Posts they cared about were the Liaoxi and Liaoshen areas.

Perhaps it was because there were too many guest troops, and because the road to Nurhaci was cut off, there was no chance for the invaders to respect themselves, so the Liaodong generals did not speak out about Liaonan.

Perhaps after Nurhachi was repelled, they discovered that the imperial court's strength in Liaodong was far greater than theirs, and the situation became even more unbalanced after Yang Zhaoji and other nearly 30,000 regular and auxiliary troops from three towns in Shanxi entered the Liao Dynasty.

They shut their mouths, and the civil servants and nobles in the court were even less likely to speak. The civil servants were busy with party disputes, and the nobles had no time to hide.

Therefore, just as Zhu Youjian expected, the Liao generals gave in, and one guard, three forts and twenty-six forts were successfully abolished.

Under the investigation of Sun Yingyuan and Qin Minping, there were a total of 365,921 Liao residents in Jinzhou, Zhenjiang, Kuandian, Fenghuang City and other places, and 1,676,400 acres of military farmland. The entire land is 552,000 acres.

Together with the 250,000 Liao people who migrated one after another, the number of people in the four places reached nearly 620,000. After the military camp was abolished, under the order of Zhu Youxiao, these six people were given 120,000 people.

The non-distribution of land to those who have land first satisfies the people who have no land, but even so, the 2,228,400 acres of land are still unable to feed 620,000 people.

Given that the annual yield per acre in Liaodong is less than one stone, these fields can at most feed the original local people.

Therefore, after the grain transported by Yumajian and Taicang from Tianjin arrived in Zhenjiang, Sun Yingyuan and other five people began to cultivate the fields.

However, as professional soldiers, it is impossible for the Seventh Guards Army to participate in reclamation. After finishing in Fatian, they returned to Beizhili by boat and just arrived in Tianjin yesterday.

They will then go to their original stations and wait for orders from Zhu Youjian and Zhu Youxiao.

Regarding the matter in Shanxi, Zhu Youxiao was still thinking about it. In one month, he had not yet decided whether to completely abolish the health centers in one capital and one province.

As for Zhu Youjian, since the salt field started operating at the end of June, he has devoted himself wholeheartedly to the salt field. He only occasionally pays attention to the recruitment of soldiers and horses by the Yanshan Camp to the Daning Three Guards.

Currently, the Yulin Guards are still in the Daning Sanwei, and after a month of recruitment, the Daning Sanwei have temporarily recruited more than 15,000 people.

It is estimated that the number of soldiers and horses for the Three Guards will be sufficient by mid-July, and then they will be transferred to the Daning Three Guards in exchange for the Habayashi Guards.

She Chongming, whom Zhu Youjian had always cared about, seemed to have made no move because of Nurhachi's defeat.

However, he did not stop building the armor, and it seemed that he had a new plan.

Zhu Youjian was not worried about him.

Hong Chengchou, Yang Wenyue, Wu Aheng, Sun Chuanting, Qin Liangyu...

The combination of these five people determines that even if he makes trouble, it will not be as big as history.

What Zhu Youjian needs to do now is to prepare for the abolition of the three towns and Shuntian Prefecture in Shanxi.

Therefore, while reading the reports from various imperial stores, he said to his dear brother:

"Brother, the autumn harvest is only a month and a half away. The Royal Horse Supervisor needs to prepare for the three towns in Shanxi and Shuntian Mansion."

"I plan to recruit sixteen battalions this time. Does my brother allow me?"

"Can I still stop you?" Zhu Youxiao rolled his eyes at his younger brother. At this moment, he was still racking his brains to think of how to win the game of chess in front of him.

Seeing his younger brother doing two things leisurely, he felt very angry, but he quickly got involved in the chess game again.

As for the conversation between the two, Wei Zhongxian and Cao Huachun inside and outside Yangxin Hall were speechless.

Sixteen battalions, that is more than 48,000 soldiers and horses...

If the recruitment and training of the 16th Battalion is successful, then the number of soldiers and horses under the Royal Horse Supervisor will reach more than 153,000.

In addition to the three Daning guards in Guangxi outside the Great Wall, that is nearly 170,000 troops.

If such a number of soldiers and horses were placed on an eleven-year-old prince, any other emperor would probably not be able to sleep.

However, looking at the frank attitude between the two brothers, it is estimated that the emperor would not be worried even if his own king of Qi controlled the world's troops.

But when it came to soldiers and horses, Zhu Youxiao thought of things in the southwest after his defeat, and said:

"My younger brother said before that if the Liao Dynasty was weak, the chieftains in the southwest might rebel. But now that the Liao Dynasty is good, why not transfer all the soldiers and horses from the southwest to Liaodong?"

Zhu Youxiao still couldn't swallow the thought of feeding more than two million taels of silver every year to those Liaodong military families who were eating empty pay, but Zhu Youjian said:

"These soldiers and horses are of great use in the southwest. If the reform encounters difficulties, I cannot guarantee it, but Sun Chuanting and Qin Liangyu will already defend the Ming Dynasty in the southwest."

Zhu Youjian's words made Zhu Youxiao frown.

He understood that his brother's words meant that if one day civil servants, nobles, and frontier troops were dissatisfied with the imperial government's abolition of guard posts and the imposition of commercial taxes and miscellaneous items, and rebelled, then Sichuan could still become the corner of the Ming Dynasty.

As long as Qin Liangyu and Sun Chuanting wipe out Sichuan, they can invade the south of the Yangtze River and force the civil servants to surrender.

However, he also noticed that his brother did not mention Hong Chengchou, Yang Wenyue, Wu Aheng and others.

This shows that in the heart of his brother, these three people actually have too much connection with the civil servants. If the court and the local government are in trouble, it will be difficult for these people to guarantee their positions.

It seems that his brother has long thought about how to pacify the world if the whole world rebels.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youxiao suddenly said:

"On matters related to Shanxi and Beizhili, just listen to my brother..."

"Huh?" Hearing this, Zhu Youjian looked up at his royal brother and didn't understand why the other party suddenly changed the tone of something he had been thinking about for a month without confirming.

When Zhu Youxiao saw his appearance, he just smiled and shook his head:

"I am indeed not as good as my younger brother when it comes to side matters. Therefore, since my younger brother has thought so carefully about the southwest, I'm afraid he is even more thoughtful about Shanxi and northern Zhili."

"I just want to ask my brother, after Shanxi and Beizhili are recovered, will my brother take action against Liaodong?"

Zhu Youxiao was determined to clean up the army in Liaodong, but Zhu Youjian frowned, picked up the chess pieces, and said:

"The matter in Shanxi is not limited to the health center. In fact, it also involves the three towns of Ningxia, Guyuan and Yulin."

"Securing the three towns in Shanxi is the first step, and the second step is to capture the Loop and make Tumut completely surrender to the Ming Dynasty!"

Tumut Department, when talking about this department, many people will be unfamiliar with it, but if it is mentioned by another name, many people will be very familiar with it.

Jin Kingdom of Ming Dynasty, King Shunyi...
To be continued...